This isn't really immersive enough TS2 is a very clever idea. I have fixed some technical problems and can play the game with all features functional. I enjoy the game enormously. There is only one trivial issue I have noticed. Do not get me wrong, I am not complaining about it. I just find it not possible to enter another lot. I can invite other Sims to join, but there is no invitation from the AI Sims? For a complete spectrum of social activity, how big the deal is to get invited to other Sim's house? Just tell me if the game supports this gameplay feature or it never does so I don't need to accelerate the game just to verify it. Also, what solutions are there for this setup. The AI Sims are the same in each stock neigbourhood. Their faces are the same and there are no variations. Even the name are the same. I have tried to make my own neighbourhood, but the same happens. How do I get the game to give me different AI Sims everytime I start a new game? Thanks in advance. Lex
Nice house... I'll never leave Well, because maxis doesn't want home invasions. Just think about it the following scenario: Your family likes the $150,000 house down the way. Despite all their legitimate efforts to afford a similar home they have been unable. Then one day they are invited over to the 150k manor. They are able to pilfer the fridge, tie up the phones, sleep in beds, turn off and on appliances, and generally do what they do at home. After a day or so of the visitors making themselves at home the existing residents die... because the invited family won't let them sleep, eat, and use the bathrooms. Although they can't buy, build, or move things (well, maybe with the moveobjects command) the family lives like kings in the home they visited for free. Or the Sim controller could use the moveobjects command to seal the existing residents inrings of furniture so they die off faster and leave the house to the visitors. In order to go to another Sims lot Maxis would have to program an execption for tons of items, making it so visitor could and could not do certain things. In the end you would visit just to sit around and watch TV and who would do that? I mean in real life, I do it all the time, but who would play a game to do that and only that? When I first started the Sims 2 I wondered the same thing but after reading a few posts on TheSims2.com BBS I saw the light. Many people would say "I just want to visit, I wouldn't invade someone else's home!" but honestly, how long until they did? How long until every other post on the BBS or this forum turned into "look at the mansion i took over" or "look how I killed off the family I visitied" ? Not long, I think. Not that I am any better. Hell, with most games i the proverbial chimp with the loaded revolver. It's only a matter of time till I start offing folks.
Hi Rowanstaff ... I thought of much the same in the way of objections but I'm stiil with Lex on the visit other sims thing. I can't think of a good reason why the game could not load a house where the family in residence is controlled by the game and effectively become NPCs. As a visitor your sims's options would be as limited as those of any other user and if asked to leave (or told goodbye) you would immediately be returned to the neighborhood screen to select your next destination. As to 'inheriting a mansion' ... firstly couldn't the death of the last 'sim host' act as the ultimate "goodbye"? And anyway, with money cheats, inheriting a mansion isn't much effort so one more way do it wouldn't exactly wreck the game (the same goes for ways to kill off sims, for that matter!)
The inability to "visit" other people's homes seems pretty obvious from a programming standpoint: How would it work? Normally, a family that is in its home is controlled by a player. Now let's say a "visiting" family visits the home. How long can they visit, and who is controllable? The visitors, or the residents? If the visitors are the ones who are controllable, the residents will rapidly die: Sims cannot survive for very long without a player controlling them, and since the residents *LIVE* there, unlike when they visit another lot, they cannot simply attempt to "exit stage left" as a solution to a need going critical: Residents, being that they LIVE there, have to take care of their needs ON THE LOT, rather than simply fleeing the lot to do so offstage. Since the Sim AI is too poor to handle this, they'd die shortly, leaving the house a trashed pile of flaming wreckage. Returning to that house, you'd find the entire family had died "on another lot", and the house would be in ruins. If the residents are the sims you control, and the visitors are NPCs, then there's no difference between this, and the way it's done NOW. So the only workable solution is to control BOTH: The former solution results in the residents all dying because Sims cannot function for extended durations unaided...or even short durations, really, since they rely on their ability to flee the lot to prevent death. Notice how a Sim inevitably dies when prevented from leaving the lot? The latter solution is no different from the way it is now. Controlling both, on the other hand, is certainly an appealing solution, but this is no different from having your Sims temporarily move in!
Hmm ... so far the only Sim I have killed deliberately (a non NPC visitor that I walled up to get a ghost for the residents to see) took 2 days to die. (And he was an elder whose ASP status was ... well, fragile, anyway!) Also since visitors can't use the fridge and since the AI rarely, if ever, gets a sim to "serve" a meal it would be more likely that as a visitor the sim you control would be the one who would have to leave when hunger went critical. In other words, JMP, your argument, for once, doesn't convince.
I have always wanted to be able to visit another Sims home. I really don't think it would have to be any different than visiting a community lot. You would only have certain options with certain objects. Why couldn't the neighbors you are visiting be controlled by you also???? Being that the Sims 2 is so family & friend oriented, wouldn't it make sense to be able to visit your sister, mother, etc...? I just really can't believe that they can't make this possible.
False. Visitors can, in fact, use the fridge. If you look at it in the editor, all of the relevant interactions regarding food-serving ARE, in fact, visitor enabled, and if you put a fridge on a community lot, you, as a visitor, *CAN*, in fact, use it. Visitors cannot, however, sleep on a bed, but they will still sleep after woohooing. They also make and drink the coffee. Visitors can also use the energizer, although no Sim ever autonomously chooses to do so.
Fair enough However, my main thesis (as I said before), is the whole "killing off" objection is entirely moot anyway as adding one more way to do it is hardly a valid objection ... especially as it would involve loading a different lot to play ... if a player wants to kill off a whole family they can just load up the relevant house and do it anyway.
My argument here stems from the idea that the player does NOT want to kill off the whole family, or any of the sims in question, but that it WILL HAPPEN ANYWAY because Sims have no ability to survive unattended for any real duration, which is what will happen when they're forced to operate completely autonomously as uncontrolled "residents", that still have to take care of all of their needs and perform all of their relevant duties because they cannot simply flee offstage anymore, as is the case when you control the residents, and the computer controls the visitors. As a result, they will quickly die, which is supposed to be an undesirable effect. It's pretty obvious that if you want to intentionally kill your Sims, there's plenty of ways you can do that.
